SIENA is the perfect antidote
to Florence, a unified, modern city
at ease with its medieval aspect,
ambience and traditions - indeed,
exultant about them. It's a place
not easily read by outsiders, and to
get anything meaningful from a visit
you'll need to stay at least one
night; too many visitors breeze
through on a day-trip.
Self-contained and still
part-rural behind its medieval
walls, Siena's great attraction is
its cityscape, a majestic Gothic
ensemble that could be enjoyed
without venturing into a single
museum. The physical and spiritual
heart of the city is the great
scallop-shaped piazza il Campo
, loveliest of all Italian squares
and scene of the thrilling Palio
bareback horse-race. Siena's Duomo
and Palazzo Pubblico are two
of the purest examples of Italian
Gothic architecture, and the best of
the city's paintings - collected in
the Museo Civico and Pinacoteca
Nazionale - are in the same
tradition; the finest example of
Sienese Gothic is Duccio's Maestà
, on show in the outstanding Museo
dell'Opera del Duomo . More
frescoes fill the halls of Santa
Maria della Scala , the city's
hospital for over 900 years and now
its premier exhibition space.
For a hundred years or so, in the
twelfth and thirteenth centuries,
Siena was one of the major cities of
Europe. Virtually the size of Paris,
it controlled most of southern
Tuscany and its wool industry,
dominated the trade routes between
France and Rome, and maintained
Italy's richest pre-Medici banks.
This era reached an apotheosis with
the defeat of a much superior
Florentine army at the battle of Montaperti
in 1260. Although the result was
reversed permanently nine years
later, Siena embarked on an
unrivalled urban development under
the guidance of its mercantile
governors, the Council of Nine
. From 1287 to 1355 the city
underwrote the completion of its
cathedral and then the Campo
and its exuberant Palazzo
Pubblico . The prosperity came
to an abrupt halt with the Black
Death , which reached Siena in
May 1348; by October, two-thirds of
the 100,000 population had died. The
city never fully recovered (the
population today is 60,000) and its
politics, always factional,
descended into chaos. In 1557 Philip
II gave up Siena to Cosimo de'
Medici in lieu of war services,
and the city subsequently became
part of Cosimo's Grand Duchy of
Tuscany, and fell into decline. The
lack of subsequent development
explains Siena's astonishing state
of preservation: little was built
and still less demolished. Since
World War II, Siena has again become
prosperous, due partly to tourism
and partly to the resurgence of the Monte
dei Paschi di Siena . This bank,
founded in Siena in 1472 and
currently the city's largest
employer, is one of the major
players in Italian finance. It today
sponsors much of Siena's cultural
life, co-existing, apparently
easily, with one of Italy's
strongest left-wing councils.
The most popular trip from Siena
is northwest to the picturesque
multi-towered village of San
Gimignano . Far fewer people
take the trouble to sample the
ancient Etruscan town of Volterra
, a highly rewarding stop en route
west from Siena to Pisa.
